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One song that would be perfect for this list is Rewrite from the last portion of the first Full Metal Alchemist series. If you watch the last opening and pair it with how it ended, you will get a true appreciation for the song.

How about Kimi ga Tame performed by Suara from Utawarerumono?
There happens to be regular OST version in the youtube and also the animes ending with that song playing background.
Its one of the rare animes, I’ve shred tears to.

From Guilty Crown: βίος is a much much more powerful music. It’s in German but just search for the translation. Also it first appears in one of the most badass hero introductions ever. Departures is also much better than Kokuhaku.

is anyone else as shocked as I am that POKEMON is on a top list for once? A series that you rarely ever see acknowledged by the “moe” crowd (even though the amount of fanart for gen5 human characters alone could probably blow most recent anime out of the water) and which some ignorant westerners will even deny to being a “real anime”. At any rate, it was a good pick (though I’ve always personally preferred Smile better).

The list is pretty good, but as always the thing I despise the most on these lists is how centered they are on recent animation… well, to be expected since it’s a popular vote.
Where’s Yoko Kanno’s Blue? In Memories from Kenshin Tsuyokuhen OVA? Anything Joe Hisaishi? Read or Die OVA? Haibane Renmei? Samurai Champloo? Trigun? Sakamichi no Apollon? Kimi ga Nozomu Eien prologue?
Not that those songs are not good, but there are so many above I can’t even list all of them, in my humble opinnion of course…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0oziDey_s
I think “Embrace That Sky” from Kimagure Orange Road would be good on that list.
But then again, looking at most anime “Top” lists nowdays just makes me feel old….. -_-

Moving? In what way? Most of these picks would move me into a coma. I guess they’re just reaching for another way to say “you’re favorite pop songs from the usual popular anime plus a couple random ones?”

It deserves first place just because it’s a friggen intro, it’s not even associated with any sad moments or anything… the theme simply just demands that you be moved emotionally! *_* It drives one to shed epic, manly tears.

or Aimo from Macross Frontier. Whoever was polled for this list lacks a certain amount of taste in music, as well as memory. KOKIA did a wonderful opener to Broken Blade…Yoko Ishida did very well for Ai Yori Ao Shi…and Megumi Hayashibara? Maaya Sakamoto? (shrug)

Some of them, such as Tenshi ni Fureta yo or Chiisana te no hira are tied to specific emotional scenes in their respective works, thus counting for “moving”. Though this makes you question whether it’s the song that’s moving or the association with the scene. I’d say it’s the latter, since if you played these things to someone who did not know the anime in question, they would not have the same experience.

On the other hand, most of the OPs and EDs have one thing in common: they differ vastly from the overall tone of the main work. For example, Ika Musume is mostly comedy, but the ending sounds very sad. Same is true for the ED of Fruits Basket. I think these songs have a higher justification for being “moving songs” rather than “moving scenes”.

Then of course, there are those works that combine both. Examples would be Ano Hana and Angel Beats. Personally I think these songs are what I would consider “moving” in the best sense of the word. Mostly because the assoation with the scenes is what separates anime songs from regular songs.

And obviously, since it’s a poll, popularity is going to play a pretty hefty role. So really, complaining that the ridiculously popular K-On tops the chart or that we’re missing some older works is a bit of a weird thing to do.

And again a list with mostly overhyped fanboy Anime … as if there’s nothing else. There’s not even one Top XX list, which seems to be normal and isn’t filled with always the same Anime, which arent! the best.

Tori no Uta is one of the all time great anime OPs, but honestly, the insert song Aozora (“Blue Skies”) is FAR more moving (of course, that has a lot to do with the scene it plays during). I defy anyone to maintain dry eyes through it.

Didn’t like Tori no Uta, the intro was like the greatest thing ever and then it turns to meh music :/ It kept changing to different melodies that really didn’t fit with each other. Would be nice if they stuck to the first melody.

Aozora was definitely better because it didn’t have an identity crisis like Tori no Uta 😛

Thank YOU for taking the words out of my mouth!!
Air is STILL the only one of two anime that ripped the MAN-TEARS out of my face!! And that song pushed me over that emotional cliff! I guess the poll takers should have been more specific, but NONE of these songs really made me feel anything compared to “Blue Skies”.

Chiisana (nr 6) is a winner for me hands down. It’s one of two songs that I just can’t listen to without crying every time… The second one is Koubou – the last ending from the last episode of Shakugan no Shana Final. So beautifull ending after so many years. It brings back great memories and just pierces my heart with overflowing emotions.
Actualy, this is true for both songs I’ve mentioned above 🙂

Absolutely right. I was amazed and pleased to see this on the list. Usually nothing older than a year or two makes the cut for these things. It’s nice to see they still remember the classics once in a while.

I am extremely surprised that there is nothing there from Miyazaki or Grave of the Fireflies.

In fact there is nothing classic in general. The closest thing is the Pokemon one. Other than that it’s pretty much CLAMP and moe all around. It almost makes you wonder if this poll was done on LOLICON.JP

now to be fair, Fruits Basket and AIR (as well as Ai Yori Aoshi on the full list) are now over 10 years old, albeit they might be considered precursors of the past decade’s moe flood (but at least they came from a time when anime were still adapted from manga instead of just any light novel “romance” that devolves into a harem). Also, I don’t know where you get the idea that it’s cluttered with CLAMP. The only one I see is the very last entry on the full list (24th place): Forever Love, from that god-awful X movie (though I can’t deny the song itself was pretty good).